It looks pretty bad, but I've been watching closely lately and most people (not to speak of governments and industry)haven't really caught on that there's a lot they can due to reduce energy consumption without hurting their lifestyle.

Of course, maybe it's time to wear a sweater in winter in the house and tolerate a warmer house in the summer. Is that so bad?

I have a engineer friend who has helped build nuclear power plants. He showed me an industry magazine that mentioned in the course of an article that the US has "more than" 25 nuclear power plans working their way through the system.

Do you get that? The plants are on the way. Bush and Co. have kept it all secret so it will be harder to stop once people figure out what the construction is all about.

Not only is the volt ugly, but it doesn't go far on a charge. I wonder why they even bother. When I watched "Who Killed the Electric Car," I thought to myself, "Where are the entrepreneurs?" The next month I found out about Telsa Motors and the Tesla all-electric sports car. A few days ago I read about TH!NK, who have a totally cool all-electric car coming out in 2010. Numerous models from start-ups are coming.

I have sympathy for GM's workers who will lose their jobs, but not to the management types who fought mileage standards every step of the way.It was really a no-brainer that gas would go up in price, and it will continue to do so. Much of Europe pays $8-$10/gallon. Life goes on quite well for them. Let's hope high oil prices will have a bright side.

I can't believe a word that comes out of the Bush people. These people wave the cross but are pathological liars. Of course Bush says that energy crops are only 10% of the crop.

And let it be clear - ethanol is another Republican bondagle in the US. One poster blames the environmentalists - yet another nod to Big Corn and the mid-west farmers.

Hmmm...looking at the posts for this column and others, I suspect that right-wingers are targeting liberal sites and adding their comments. Interesting, since they don't like to read. Perhaps their comments are based on the headline?

Don't forget the influence of Karl Rove. Politics is everything. Every rule, every procedure is vetted by the political officer.

The first priority is politics.

Appear to be taking security seriously. Never mind the stuff behind the scenes that goes on. Appear to be doing something. That's all.

It's like W's war on terror. It's all about words, not reducing the threat of terrorism. In fact, he has increased our chances of terrorism by ensuring that most people int he world hate us.

Oops- was that a knock on my door?

It's a funny/strange truth that if you hate someone, you become like them.

The CIA became like the KGB because they felt they had to fight communism. Now the US secret agencies have become like Al Quida because they feel they have to "go on the dark side" to fight terrorism. Well, we don't publicly decapitate people, but too many innocent people have died due to the war on terrorism.

This brings up an old rule in the major religions: you don't fight hatred with hatred, because the result is more hatred.

I have trouble believing that the islands where nukes were dropped are so safe. Some radioactive particles have a half-life of tens of thousands of years. One speck of polonium is deadly for 50,000 years if not more. And none of these dangerous particles are present on the islands?

Maybe the radioactivity is buried a few feet underground. I'm open to being corrected, but this article goes against much that I have read.

The article is very sensible, logical, rational. Just the sort of thing the media and right-wingers criticize as froth of the intellectual elites.

But I think it's more than that. The media,especially TV leads the thought process and even highlights the charges against the educated, er, intellectual elites. The average person doesn't want to read, or to think deeply, and the media encourages that.

One day the public will understand that the right-wing and media regard John Q Public as stupid, just as they regard the right-wing religious conservatives as "religious nut-jobs."

Then you'll see some change fast. But what will it take for people to wake up?

This lady knows what she reads. She isn't dumb - although she likes to blame dumb. She doesn't want us to know either what she reads and/or that she doesn't read much.

She and her handlers don't want us to know her world view. So the advice is to stay within talking points and/or change the subject and/or change the focus of the question.

This lady is Cheny reincarnated. We should be very afraid of her and take her threat seriously.

I've watched about 30 seconds so far of the debate. Not sure if I should watch more. It's so bothersome and maybe scary that someone like Palin would be running for VP. It shows what this country has come to.

Do I just have a low political pain threshold? Are you all actually enjoying the debate?

Glenn said:The more they unmask themselves this way, the more smashing will be their defeat, the longer their banishment will be.

The right is doing everything it can to steal the election. Rigged voting, scaring away minorities from the poll precincts, lying up a storm. They will do ANYTHING to win. The people calling the shots have no sense of ethics.

What amazes me is that the people I know who support McCain/Palin are worse off under his policies (not to speak of Bush and Co.) So goes America?

Let's not hold our breath. It ain't over till it's over. Tough times are ahead for us all.